Nikon 90MM

[Ken Lee]

Make sure there is enough belows draw for a 300mm lens. You may need to consider a tele design.

[John Cook]

I have never actually handled a Shen Hao, but have owned both the Nikkor f4.5 and f8 lenses. The front diameter of the f4.5 is enormous at 85mm, but there is less mass (and glass) inside than something like a 240mm or 300mm f5.6. Therefore, weight-wise, I don’t see a big potential problem. The specs show the f8 @ 360g, f4.5 @ 600g, the 240mm f5.6 @ 820g and the 300mm f5.6 @ 1250g.

Working outdoors in sunshine with a fresnel, I chose the 90mm f8 for my Ebony, as it more closely matches the size and weight of my Nikkor 150mm f5.6, 200mm f8 and 300mm f9. The last three, by the way, use the same size filters, which is handy. The f4.5, while helpful in a dim interior, may not be absolutely necessary in daylight.

As for bag bellows, I have found that, while useful for table-tops, they are not absolutely essential for landscapes. A 90 is one of those lenses which has very limited movements before vignetting, and is so wide that nearly the entire Western Hemisphere is in focus without much fiddling. Extra bellows are just one more thing for me to carry.

[Tim Hettinger]

guy- I was using the 90mm 4.5 on a shen hao just yesterday. It works fine, but make sure you lock down the front standard well, especially if you are pointing down at all, as it has a tendency to flop forward. Once you lock it in place you are fine. A bag bellows is useful if you want to use a lot of movements, but for small movements or straight shots it isn't needed. When hiking around, I kinda wish I had gone with the f8 since it is so much lighter. you'll have enough bellows for the 300, unless you are going for relatively close up shots. it is a fine lens and you will have few problems. you also may not get many movements out of it as your bellows will be pretty well stretched to the max.

[Gem Singer]

Hi Guy,

I have used the 4X5 Shen Hao camera along with a Nikkor f8 90SW lens. I found that it was much more convenient to use the bag bellows with that lens. The normal bellows was compressed with the 90, making movements of the front standard difficult and limited. Since you already have a 150 Rodenstock, I recommend the 90 f6.8 Rodenstock Grandagon N as a companion wide angle lens.

The Nikkor f4.5 is a large lens. It takes expensive 82mm. screw-in filters. It's heavy weight puts a lot of strain on the Shen Hao's front standard tightening knobs and levers. I understand your concerns about brightness when focusing. However, since you have a Boss Screen and are doing landscape work outdoors, a slower f6.8 or f8.0 lens will work just fine.

[Walter Foscari]

I agree entirely with Eugene's comment. I've used the Shen-Hao, with a 90 and the bags bellows is a must if you want to take advantage of the generous movements available. Also agree that since you have a BossScreen a Grandagon 6.8 may be bright enough for 95% of your oustide shots. Realistically since you only have a 150 right now, with the money required for one of the large 90s (5.6 or 4.5) you could get a compact 90 and another lens in between, like a fuji W 125. Ultimately you would also end up with the same weight anyway.

[Johannes Becker]

I put another vote in for the bag bellows. I used my SA 8/90 for about a year without the bag bellows on the Shen Hao. The compressed bellows caused problems with lens rise and would block the movement before running out of coverage. So since the bag-bellows is cheap, I highly recommend trying it out. I owned a Grandagon 4.5/90 for a while but only used it on a Cambo Legend. I never really thought about putting it on the Shen Hao, it just seemed a bit big. Of course, the 4.5 was a pleasure to use, but for me, it was too expensive piece of glass to keep just for the brighter ground glass image. However, I wonder that nobody mentioned the Nikon 8/90 so far. It got excellent specs and is relatively cheap on top of it.

[Diane Maher]

I have a 90 mm /f/4.5 and I use it on my Toyo 45AII with no problems. If it's stressing the front standard, I haven't noticed. I took it to a balloon glow as my primary lens a few weeks ago.

[Gem Singer]

Diane,

The Toyo 45AII has a front standard that is designed and built to handle the size and weight of the Nikkor f4.5 90SW. Unfortunately, the front standard of the 4X5 Shen Hao is not that strong, judging from my experience with both of those cameras.

[giancatarina]

"Budget, luckily is not an issue" then you should consider the super symmar 110 xl /5,6, while not as large as the 90, it is in my opinion (that i share with a lot of photographers) the best moderate wide angle lens that money can buy ! state of the art modern aspheric lens : larger image circle, extremely sharp, quite light, filter 67, f5,6 and bag bellow is not mandatory .

Considering f8/90 lens, i will go for the nikon because of it's image circle (same as others 5,6, but larges than others 8 and 6,8 lens !)?

look at www.robertwhite.co.uk for good prices, or badger ...